The Dead Kennedys are one of the seminal punk bands of the 1970's, the biggest punk band to come out of San Francisco. They released many albums during their heyday of the 70's/80's and each one was an instant classic. Most recently they have had major legal problems with their former lead singer, Jello Biafra.
Since January 2001 the Dead Kennedys have been functioning as a democracy. Rumors have been flying around the band since they stopped working with Jello Biafra. The Dead Kennedys are not on a major record label they are on Manifesto records which is run by three family members. From his home in San Francisco East Bay Ray has the chance to talk directly to fans about the case and what's coming up with the band.

East Bay Ray: Well it's an old story. Its record labels taking money from musicians. We tried to negotiate and settle and we were stonewalled. We were dragged into court and it's been a horrible experience.

DRE: It's a little different because Jello Biafra owns the label.

EBR: Yes. But not really. There is a conflict of interest between him as a band member and him running a business as a record label.

DRE: Is it over?

EBR: Well we were finished two years ago after the first trial. Biafra now has a case against us and now he has case against us in Alameda. Also a motion against us in San Francisco, a federal case and an appeal.

DRE: What's he trying to get from you?

EBR: I guess you'd have to ask him. Some people have a hard time admitting making mistakes. We really feel that four years ago this could have been settled reasonably between us. But power can corrupt. Arrogance comes with power. We were dragged into court, we presented the facts and the truth came out.

DRE: If Jello was in the room with you and you didn't have to go through lawyers. What would you say?

EBR: What are you trying to do? You made a mistake. One of the signs of a real adult and responsible person is being able to admit you made mistakes, rectify the situation and move on.

Haven't you made mistakes?

DRE: All the time.

EBR: But besides all that we have a new DVD coming out. A lot of bands have been in court, the Misfits, Sex Pistols and even the Beatles.

DRE: More bands will be in the court in the future.

EBR: Right, and who even remembers what those cases were even about. The music has a life of its own. This is a very unfortunate thing but you have to understand that we are victims here and it's really astonishing that some people are blaming us. I don't know how much longer we have to be subjected to these fictions. Blaming the victim stuff is horrible. Its one of the dirtiest lowdown political maneuvers you can make. If you were in my position you would be astonished at about how unscrupulous people are.

DRE: Is it because in the past Jello was always the talker of the group?

EBR: Yeah I'm not a media person. Media people confuse being a good talker with reality. No offense to you.

DRE: Its ok. I'm a bastard.

EBR: Well people talk about how some people are icons. What that really means nowadays is that those people photograph well. It's what people read into it.

Biafra has had a lot more access to the media. That was part of the case. He spent a lot of the money that was due to the band to promoting himself. In the United States money talks even on the punk level.

DRE: Let's say everything is settled, sooner rather than later do you see the band getting back together with Jello?

EBR: Well that's up to Biafra. We have no problem with that. We're not angry. We're saddened and concerned about how things went. I can see the end of it now. We didn't want to go to court. Every time Biafra gets us into court he's been worse off. He should talk to us not to judges and lawyers.

DRE: What's it like touring without Jello?

EBR: It's touring. Hurry up and wait. You have to really like the music.

DRE: How did you guys find Brandon Cruz?

EBR: DH [Peligro] knew him because they both live in Los Angeles. We played shows with him back in the 1980's too.

DRE: How's punk different now?

EBR: Its gets a lot of promotion now. Punk has all sorts of different definitions. My definition is do it yourself and trying something different, be experimental. Back when we started in the San Francisco scene at the Mabuhay Gardens, which was the local club, there would be an art band, punk band then a pop band all on one bill. Then in the 1980's those scenes stood apart. They became more rigid. Where's the punk rock rulebook? Just looking at the Sex Pistols you had Sid Vicious on one end and Johnny Rotten on the other. The Dead Kennedys were more on the Johnny Rotten side. We never had Mohawks and spiky leather jackets.

DRE: You had the leather though.

EBR: Yeah but it didn't have all the rivets in it. I had a leather jacket long before punk too [laughs].

DRE: Fonzie started the leather thing.

EBR: Or Marlon Brando in The Wild One [released in 1953].

DRE: How was the San Francisco's punk scene different from Washington DC and London?

EBR: I think the San Francisco scene right now is not getting much support from the local papers. If you're in a good New York band you'll get some coverage and in Austin also. In San Francisco they only jump on what you're doing wrong. The media here will probably kill me for that but every once in a while someone has to say the emperor doesn't have any clothes. San Francisco isn't really as hip as it thinks it is.

DRE: The reissues sound great.

EBR: Yeah we remastered the entire back catalog. It sounds way better than it used to especially Give Me Convenience Or Give Me Death which was made in the later 80's. it's just an atrocity how that piece of music was ruined for us. if you played them side by side you would really hear the difference. We released our first live CD, Mutiny on the Bay.

DRE: How do you pick a live CD?

EBR: We listen to a lot of our live shows. It's kind of hard to get a completer Dead Kennedys show due to the audience participation. The DVD coming out is us recording In God We trust in the studio. The interesting thing about that is those sessions were supposed to be on the original EP but the tape we recorded on deteriorated because it was a bad batch. So we had to go back and record the whole EP. But we were able to salvage five of the studio takes for the DVD. The fidelity is a little punky shall we say. Then we have a live version of the song so you can see how it's transformed.

DRE: I did read that you don't see the band recording anything new anytime soon. Why is that?

EBR: We've been too busy traveling to places we've never been too like Japan, South American, Brazil, and Chile.

DRE: I bet you're still huge there.

EBR: Oh yeah. we played in front of 4000 people in Brazil. We did the Holidays in the Sun festival in the UK and that had 3500 people. We played Serbia, Budapest, Russia, Poland and Hungary. The audience is about 2/3 young people.

DRE: How did you and Jello first hook up in 1978?

EBR: I put an ad in the paper and in the independent music store in San Francisco.

DRE: What was the best time you've had in the Dead Kennedys?

EBR: The beginning because that was before attorney Richard F. Scott. He was Biafra's friend and personal attorney. He didn't tell us he was Biafra's personal attorney and he became the band's attorney. That's very unethical and it's illegal in California. It's a conflict of interest.

DRE: What's your favorite album you've done?

EBR: Plastic Surgery Disasters [released in 1982].

DRE: What's the craziest thing a fan ever threw on stage at you?

EBR: [laughs] One thing I recall is at the Mabuhay is someone untied and stole my low top Converse tennis shoes. That was before the boots. A week later someone threw them on stage all decorated and painted orange. I still have them someplace.

DRE: Do you guys still do drugs?

EBR: Coffee. I don't smoke anymore though. I do sugar and watch TV.

DRE: What are you listening to now?

EBR: There's a local band here called The Glamour Pussies. They don't have a record out but they are punk rock and they don't care. They sound raunchy and blow people's expectations. Also one of the guy's who helps us tour has a band called Sidekick. They're really good.

DRE: What do you think of suicide girls?

EBR: It's interesting. They just put themselves out there. It's a different kind of positive self image than the usual Hollywood thing. Being in San Francisco I see and know a lot of people like that.

DRE: You like punk emo or Goth girls?

EBR: It depends on the personality. They have to have a sense of personality. But I need them to have a sense of humor.

anyone play guitar hero 3? haha imagine my dismay when i saw you could "rock out" to Holiday in Cambodia!!! i wonder whose pockets are being lined by that move? either way, east bay ray is a killer guitarist and a douchebag....

p.s. i love the guy above who redefined DIY to mean "do whatever is in your power to make money and get famous"

I don't think any of the bands are making money on Guitar Hero. Notice the titles say "made famous by..." and it's not the original bands playing the music on that game. Totally strange game (although fun). Pretending to play guitaur to the tune played by a cover band. I can't decide if it's really super PoMo or just wicked cheapo.

I have a difficult time making any sweeping statements or passing judgement on a grand scale about bands who "sell out" to big corporations. One person can be a corporation (usually an LLC), or many people can hold stock in a giant conglomerate corporation. "Corporate" is thrown around much to much in lazy, uninformed responses/reactions.

Alternate Tentacles is it's own corporation, formed so that Jello could keep his vision/verson alive instead of answering to someone else. I think that is admirable, but also what is causing the problems with the band.
So, instead of answering to stock holders and big wigs, the band ends up answering to Jello.

We are all marginalized by someone. Just a matter of who, and to what degree. Finding a way to let your own voice be heard is what Punk was trying to do (as well as the original Hippies, the original Beats... all the way back to Socrates) Punk stopped being the same as it originally was as soon as it got labeled and turned into a fashion. There are still alot of people who are true to their own voice, so that is cool. But, those who think they know the definition of "punk" are often just nostalgic for some kind of category that they either were never involved with, or are old people who are looking to relive the good old days...